


Framed

by warlockdetective



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, potential spoilers for the later books in the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-17 23:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15472260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warlockdetective/pseuds/warlockdetective
Summary: It was hard to keep track of every pair of glasses he ever owned.





	Framed

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be honest, this started off as a small headcanon that eventually became it's own thing based off of several I wasn't quite aware I had.  
> Honest feedback is appreciated.

Klaus Baudelaire was given his first pair of glasses when he was a young boy. They were a standard pair of round thick-frame glasses; a classic choice when it came to a first pair of glasses. For a good while, he was too stubborn to wear them. It wasn't until Violet pointed out to him one day how slouched his posture was whenever he read that he decided to put them on. The glasses were a tad too big for him; every few minutes, he would have to push them back to keep them from falling off his face and onto the pages of the rather lengthy novel he was in the middle of. His vision seeming much less hazy, however, was not something he minded getting used to.

He had accidentally left them on the trolley one morning. By the time he had registered that he had even left them behind at all, it was too late to try and get them back.

 

Klaus's second pair of glasses were given to him a few weeks after he lost the first pair. They were a pair of gray square-shaped glasses; besides both the frame shape and color, one of the major differences between the the newer and older frames was that the frames of the newer glasses were wire. While the glasses were a more suited size for him, it took him a bit of time to get used to how different the wire frames felt compared to the plastic frames. There had only ever been one issue with the glasses, the issue being the right lens popping out of the frame rather unexpectedly one night. Violet had taken care of it as if it was nothing; she carefully cleaned the lens before fitting it back into the frame, and tightened the frame so it had a more secure hold on the lens. Klaus proceeded to gush about how cool she was more than he already did for that alone for a good couple of weeks.

On a family trip to the beach, they had been knocked off his face when he had been taken under the water by a rather large wave. Despite the frantic, albeit somewhat blurry, search, any attempts of finding them were fruitless.

 

Klaus's third pair of glasses--another set of wire frame glasses, these one being more copper and rectangular--were given to him a few days before his 10th birthday. These ones were a bit looser than the other ones, though he found them to be more comfortable for that very reason. For the first time since getting glasses, he felt as if he had finally found a pair that truly suited him.

Someone had bumped--no, _nudged_ \--into him one day, and he would've fallen completely to the ground had he not fixed his footing. His glasses, however, had been knocked clean off his face and landed on the ground with a clutter. But before he could try to pick them back up, the very same person who had nudged him just seconds ago swiftly slammed their foot down onto his glasses, and he could've sworn they sneered at him before muttering a downright condescending "Oops," and turning to leave. For a good moment, Klaus considered tackling the kid to the ground. He felt tears stinging in his eyes as he picked up what was left of the frames; the left lens had popped out of the frame, while the right lens had cracks so deep it was almost impossible to see at all, never mind the fact that it was almost impossible to even _wear_ the things considering the right temple was gone completely.

 

The fourth pair of glasses had the shortest life span, though that was because they were made to act as an emergency backup pair of glasses. As soon as she heard what happened, Violet spent the rest of the night making Klaus a new pair of glasses. Despite the fact that one of the lens was _slightly_ more crooked than the other, all in all it was a decent replica of the glasses he had been wearing earlier that day. When she had given them to him the next morning, he gave her the strongest hug he had ever given anyone, tears streaming down his cheeks. And thus began another set of weeks of Klaus gushing about how cool his sister was.

That pair became the first pair he didn't lose or get broken, be it his fault or not.

 

By the time Klaus was about to get his fifth pair of glasses, he had gotten bored of the standard frames and decided to experiment somewhat. He ended up getting a set of Pince-Nez eyeglasses, along with a sixth pair of glasses for backup; a wire framed set of mint colored star-shaped glasses. His mother had asked him why, not sternly, but curiously. He admitted he just thought they were funny.

While the star glasses weren't exactly the most practical, they lasted him much longer than the other.

 

Shortly after his 12th birthday, he was given his seventh set of glasses, and he couldn't help but laugh when he had been given them; they were round and thick-framed, very familiar to the first set he had ever been given, save for the fact that the frame was wire instead of plastic. They were even a tad bit too large for him, something he hadn't experienced in a while. The memory added an odd sort of sentiment towards them.

Every positive memory that had once been connected to them had seemed tarnished the day he and his siblings lost their parents in the fire that destroyed their entire home.

 

Klaus wasn't entirely sure how he got his eighth pair of glasses. Well, that was somewhat of a lie, he knew when he got them, but he didn't exactly remember how he got them. He remembered someone tripping him and crushing his glasses. He remembered Charles bringing him to the optometrist's, much to his dismay. Everything between then and finding himself in front of a stamping machine, however, was a blur. From what his sisters had told him, it was almost too obvious that he had been hypnotized by the optometrist.

As far as he knew, he got the ninth pair the same way; they were even the same kind of glasses, and they looked like the ones he had been wearing for months before he and his sisters arrived in Paltryville, only the ones he had been given were metal framed. Someone had tripped him and crushed his glasses again, he had gone to the optometrist's with Violet and Sunny, but everything from then to finding himself in front of a saw machine was a blur; he was surprised he managed to save Charles, who was tied to a log and had been heading towards the saw blade. When he thought about it, he found it odd how that was the pair of glasses that had lasted him the longest. He tried not to think too hard about the possibilities of why they were as durable as they were.

 

Klaus lost track of the glasses he owned by the time he got his tenth; a metal framed set of white square-shaped glasses, part of a disguise he had worn when he and his siblings returned to the city--well, more "when he and his siblings crashed their ship and washed up on the beaches of the city"--in an attempt to find where Beatrice Snicket had gone once the ship had crashed and to re-enter society without drawing too much suspicion to them, as The Daily Punctilio's word was still widespread. The first few years back in the city were the roughest; every few months, the Baudelaires gave each other new identities and jumped around different parts of the city to avoid both The Daily Punctilio and the possible VFD members they could've sworn were either nearby or after them.

Many of the glasses Klaus wore in this time had been lost to him; very few of them had a set of lens that didn't hurt his eyes if he wore them for too long, while many of the others either didn't really have something memorable about them in his. One pair he couldn't stop thinking about no matter how much he wanted to, however, was a wire frame set of gray triangle-shaped glasses. He had slipped out of wearing glasses after receiving that particular pair of them.

 

It wasn't until a few days before his 28th birthday that, after approximately a decade without them, Klaus had been given a new pair of glasses. A surprising amount had happened throughout the decade, including what he and his siblings had almost feared was impossible: a reunion with Beatrice Snicket. After a rather lengthy hug and cry at the beach they just happened to all bump into each other at, the four of them had gone to a quiet little restaurant to catch up, leaving the establishment with misty eyes and a feeling of, almost, tranquility.

Beatrice had wanted to give him the glasses on his birthday, but she found herself too giddy to wait until then. Before he could take a peek at the glasses, Beatrice excitedly put the glasses on his face, being careful not to poke him in the eyes with either of the temples. The first thing he noticed was how much clearer his vision was with them, a rush of emotions flooding through him when he realized that the first time he made that observation was about twenty years ago when he finally put on his first pair of glasses. The second thing he noticed when he finally looked in the mirror were the glasses themselves; a pair of black hexagon-shaped glasses with wire frames. He curiously asked why she chose a hexagon shape for the frames, to which she simply answered that she thought they were funny. He couldn't help but laugh at the response, tears welling in his eyes as he pulled her in for a hug and thanked her.

 

It was hard to keep track of every pair of glasses he ever owned, one reason being just how many he had in the first place, another being that many of them had a fair share of unpleasant memories connected to them. In fact, the reason he had stopped wearing them altogether was to see if maybe that would prevent the unfortunate events he had seen in them from coming back to him. Yet when he took off the early birthday present glasses Beatrice had given him before going to bed, he couldn't help but think about where he was now. Sure, where they lived was somewhat crowded for four people, but for the first time in a while, Klaus felt that he and his siblings were finally safe.

He couldn't help but think that things had finally taken a turn for the better.


End file.
